Thyme & Almond Cheese Beet Stacks

Note from Joy: I love Bianca's recipes. We've shared her recipes before, most recently her cauliflower hemp seed soup was a hit... especially those gluten-free croutons!

Today was the ideal day to talk beets because I just had a beet salad for lunch (leftover from dinner last night) as you might have seen on my twitter or instagram feed (see photo).

I am certain you will enjoy her post!

If you are doing the Joyous 10-day Detox or any detox for that matter, cravings do happen and it sounds like hers were solved with this incredible recipe for Thyme & Almond Cheese Beet Stacks. EnJOY!

Cheese, oh how I miss you dearly. I have to say, I don’t miss red meat, I don’t miss alcohol (too much), but the thing I am missing the most on my cleanse is cheese. As far as dairy goes I’m not much for milk, but cheese, oh my beloved cheese, is so near and dear to my heart; ricotta, parmesan, goat, haloumi, fried, fresh or brined- when it comes to cheese I do not discriminate. However, on a cleanse cheese is an absolute no no; because dairy, organic or not, is hard for the body to digest and the whole point of a cleanse is to give the digestive system a much needed reprieve.

Because dairy is a forbidden food, I have wanted it more than ever over the last couple weeks. Isn’t it funny how we always want what we cannot have?! In any case, when my craving hit a fever pitch, I was reduced to sitting at my refrigerator and sniffing a block of jarlsberg- not my finest moment; but I resolved to find a suitable replacement to satiate me.

I’ve heard much about vegan nut cheese, but I’ve never had a need for it, when I could just eat cheese; now, however, I needed nut cheese more than ever.

Before I get into the details of this recipe I will preface by saying that there is a little bit of elbow grease required to make nut cheese happen, you must soak the nuts overnight, which is great because we activate all those health boosting enzymes; but the clincher is that you then have to peel them one by one, the peels do, however, come off pretty easily, but the act is still a bit tedious #FairWarning!

Now I chose to you use almonds because I had them on hand and I love them; but I’ve also seen nut cheese made with cashews (the most common) and even, less commonly, with pistachios. And as I mentioned, when you soak nuts and seeds, you increase the enzyme activity by two or three times and the vitamin capacity shoots up almost 50%- which is HUGE; in this recipe the act of soaking does two things, 1) softens the nuts so we can create the desired texture and 2) loosens the skins, which is essential as we are using almonds.

Once the overnight soak has been completed, and the skins have been removed- which is easily achieved by taking the soaked nut and rubbing it against a dry cloth- we blend! This is the easy part; it’s as simple as adding the remaining ingredients and blending, tasting and, of course, enjoying.

I chose to make beets stacks because I love beets, in the most unabashed way! Beets are incredibly detoxifying for our livers and they work to clean our blood; is it a coincidence that they are red and work tirelessly to clean our bloodstream? Me thinks not! During a cleanse, or all year for that matter, it’s a great idea to have roasted and peeled beets in your fridge, so when you feel like a deliciously detoxifying meal, they are ready and waiting. Simply slice your pre roasted beets into thin-ish rounds, place in a frying pan with coconut oil and cook on both sides for about 3 minutes, layer with almond and thyme nut cheese and BAM, breakfast, lunch or dinner is served!

Who needs cheese anyways?!